This invention relates generally to a video recorder camera for recording video information, and more particularly to a video recorder camera for recording a testimonial or the like by an individual person or speaker, and insuring the privacy of the identity of this person.
Often when giving a video taped interview, a speaker does not wish to be identified on the videotape or when the videotape is replayed or reproduced. This may be for reasons of security, or otherwise. For whatever the reason, the identity of the speaker must be maintained in confidence. Indeed, without the guarantee of this secrecy, many speakers would not give testimony. Thus, it is quite important to be able to provide guaranteed security.
In the prior art, in order to provide security of the identity of a speaker, the interview of the speaker is taped in private, and upon playback, the portion of the video information including the user's face is modified in some way to hide the identity of the speaker. This method of hiding the identity does not allow the identity of the speaker to be known to anyone viewing the playback program, which includes only the modified video information instead of features of the speaker which might allow a viewer to determine his or her identity. However, the first source tape still exists without any modification of the video information, and thus with the speaker's identity thereon without any secrecy. This poses a problem for security of the identity of the speaker.
In an alternative prior art embodiment, a speaker is photographed by the video camera with a bright light behind his or her head thereby casting a shadow over the speaker's face so that features the face cannot be viewed and thus the identity of the speaker cannot be identified. However, it is very difficult to provide such a setup on location, outside of a studio, where many interviews occur. For example, if the interview takes place on a sunlit day, it would be very difficult to overshadow the sunlight with a portable bright light behind the speaker's head.
Therefore, it would be beneficial to provide a video recorder camera which insures the privacy of a speaker upon recording of the testimony of the speaker.